Eleanor
Eleanor, also known as The Cold Princess and The Countess, is a character of Rule of Rose and is a high-ranking member of the Red Crayon Aristocrat Club. She is an aloof girl and never shows her true feelings to anyone, making her seem unfriendly, distant, and hard to understand as a person. She is often seen with a cage holding her red bird. Story It is unknown when Eleanor exactly arrived at the orphanage, but it is obvious that she was there before Jennifer's arrival. Eleanor is known as the Cold Princess, and is given the rank of Countess in the Red Crayon Aristocracy. She is one of the three Aristocrats in the Refined Class including Diana and Meg, with Diana ranking higher than her and Meg, ranking lower. Eleanor is known as cold, harsh, stern, and distant towards the other children, as she is often lost in a world of her own and ignores other people. However, she still attends meetings for the Aristocrat Club, and still participates in the other children's games. It is unknown why she was elected so high up in the Aristocracy if she remains so cold and distant towards the other children, but it is theorised that because no one knew what was on her mind, she was elected out of curiosity to see if she would open up her mysterious mind to other people, but this failed to happen. When Jennifer arrived at the orphanage, Eleanor neither became her friend nor her enemy and rarely spoke to her. In July of 1930, the monthly gift for the Aristocrat Club was to be a "Bird of Happiness." Since Eleanor was the only person in the orphanage to own a pet bird, some unknown orphan(s) (supposedly Meg and/or Diana) murdered it and wrapped it up in her dress. Jennifer managed to find it, but Eleanor entered the room to see her holding the bird corpse straight afterwards. Jennifer quickly claims that she was not the one who killed the bird, but instead of getting angry or upset, Eleanor merely took the bird and put it into the Gift Box with no particular reaction, countering Meg and Diana's bet of whether Eleanor would cry or become angry should she find her little bird. From then on, Eleanor always carried around her pet bird's cage, empty. Eleanor's fascination with birds stems from her wish to "sprout wings like a bird and fly away to wherever she pleased." It is possible that she believed her pet bird would take her to a happy world named Forever Land, where she could escape the troubles of normal life in the orphanage and live in everlasting happiness. This belief was shortly ended after her pet bird was killed, as it showed that "everlasting happiness is a joke." Eleanor also openly supports and takes part in the Aristocrat Club punishments towards the other children. This is shown when she cheers both to Amanda and Jennifer when punishing one another on two separate occasions and puts an insect in the Onion Bag while Jennifer was inside it. When Wendy issued a Rule of Rose to the other orphans not to speak to Jennifer to make her feel isolated, Eleanor obliged by ignoring Jennifer all the time. Wendy's final Rule of Rose to murder Jennifer's pet dog Brown was also partially obliged by Eleanor along with Diana, who put Brown into a sack and beat him to death outside the orphanage. After Jennifer violently lashes out at Wendy and shows her hatred towards the other orphans, Eleanor, along with the other orphans, chooses to elect Jennifer as their new Princess of the Red Rose, but shortly afterwards is murdered by Stray Dog (Gregory Wilson). Storybook The storybook for Eleanor is entitled "The Bird of Happiness" and was possibly written by Gregory for Jennifer when she lived at his house, and since the storybook coincidentally related to Jennifer's memories of Eleanor, Jennifer combined the two together. The events of Eleanor's plight with her pet bird is claimed to have taken place in July of 1930. The Bird of Happiness Once, a girl found a big box. The Bird of Happiness was inside. The bird would take her to Forever Land, or so she hoped. Each box was smaller than the last. In a cramped, dark space, the girl found her little bird. But it was far too little, and far too late. The bird was long dead, it had met a bloody fate. The End. The moral: Everlasting happiness is a joke. Etymology The English name Eleanor comes from the Old French form of the Provençal name Aliénor. The first known bearer of the name was Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was named after her mother, Aénor de Châtellerault, and called Aliénor,(from Alia-Aenor, which means other-Aenor in Occitan). It became "Eléanor" in the northern Langue d'oïl and in English. Therefore the meaning of the name is sometimes given as "The Other." In Greek, the meaning of the name was "compassion, pity." In Arabic, it means "God is my light." Compared to the other children, Eleanor can be seen as the "Other Child," as in the one who is not like the others. The "compassion" element to the name clashes with her cold, indifferent attitude to everyone else and most of the events of the story. Quotes *"She was writing you a love letter. Oh... I see..." *"There you are." *"...The red bird. Have you found what you're looking for? Something dear to you...?" *"...We had to do it. Besides, there's no such thing as mermaids... They're such beautiful and pure creatures." *"If only we could fly away like birds and go wherever we wished."﻿ Trivia *Where Eleanor obtained her red bird from is not said in the game. She could have owned it when she still lived with her family and brought it to the orphanage when she went there, or it could have been an orphanage pet which she became very fond of that became more of her responsibly then anyone else's over time. Category:Characters Category:Supporting Characters Category:Aristocrat Club Members Category:Children